[lookingtomove726]

Been following this thread for a bit and decided to ask some questions!!
We are looking to move to Florida in the spring 2010 and have just started to look at areas. We are familiar with Florida weather as we have spent many summers there over the last 20 years so we know what to expect!! My husband is retired so employment doesn't matter. The most important thing is a safe neighborhood and good school system as my child will be entering the 7th grade at that time. We plan on visiting the North Port and Punta Gorda area next month and plan to look around a bit then but we are open to ANY area inland or coastal as long as it is affordable, safe and most importantly offers a good school system. Would appreciate any suggestions on areas to consider.

[SoFLGal]

Hi Looking to Move,

I have three kids 15, 10 & 3 and we moved from Port Charlotte to Sarasota county specifically for the school system. North Port generally has more affordable homes. You get more for your money here.

[taz540i]

Okay hold on to your computer chairs!!! I am a native. Port Charlotte. Born and raised. I have loved it and hated it, just like every other place you will live. We are not Mayberry, but we do okay. People from up North complain, but they stay, then they complain about the snowbirds, which they once were. It's quite funny. I own a home here, the ecomomy for the whole country hasn't been kind, but we keep chugging along. ALOT of new construction because of Hurricane Charley. By the way the ONLY hurricane that has hit Charlotte county in 38 years, Hurricanes arent common. The school system is okay, been through it myself, so has my daughter. You have to look at specific schools. I personally judge them from everything from education, if it is overpopulated (teacher to child ratio) the measures they take to make sure she was safe while there. You have a pretty wide choice of decent schools. I am not going to make Port Charlotte as paradise, it's not. It's a great place to live, if you like laid back, so is North Port. My home is on the Charlotte/Sarasota line. If I walk accross the street I am in North Port. The only problem I see for children,teens, is a lack of this to do. That is slowly changing. The community needs to get more involved. Now the housing prices, they are on a steady decline since the hike caused by Charley. They are BECOMING more reasonable. Charlotte Sun Herald is a newspaper online. You can search home prices, news events, for Charlotte county. " Old Florida" as they call it, is here, downtown Punta Gorda historical area, it is rare. I have watched Old Florida turn into condos and beachfront bars/ hotels. It is still here. I have always found Florida a great place because I can hang her at home but, I have Miami, Busch Gardens, Key West, Walt Disney World, Tampa, The list goes on forever. If I want excitment it's here, if not, it's here.

[jimbo123]

Hello all. I have read all 22 pages of the thread so far and have been doing a bit of research for the past 2 weeks ever since my friend called me about a 4% incentive on new home community in port Charlotte. REALLY tempting, beautiful homes in a gated community! ( don't really know if a gated community is a plus or not? Fees and all?) I have heard that PC is TOO OLD? NOT INto walkers and the like. MY motorcycle is really loud and would probably scare them outta their wits!
(SoFlGal I sent you an email )
Any and ALL opinions are welcome and please forgive me if i get a bit "wordy" I have been chomping at the bit to buy in Florida due to the affordability or at least getting there.
Ok, here I go, my situation. I hope my expectations are not too high?
I will be 48 this year,my wife 42, Guess we are the "oldies". I like to ride my cruiser,go to the gym, fresh water fishing would be nice also. I would prefer not to be too far away from civilization. We now live in Northern NJ, bergen county. It is VERY congested, actually a bit too much for our taste but, we are 5 minutes from everything! That is a big plus for us. We have 5 shopping malls in Paramus, 1 16 plex movie theatre, the World gym is 3 minutes, 3 food markets, 2 shop rites, 1 stop n shop. We are 10 minutes from the George Washington bridge and NYC. ( which you can keep btw)
See, Bergen county has everything and we do like all the access but, we would not mind driving a bit more for things to do in exchange for warm weather. WE hate the cold! We looked at temperature on the weather sites and checked all the way down from the Carolinas and even into Georgia for the possibility of more affordability. Friends and one family member moved to Charlotte NC. They rented for a year and moved permanently, they love it. I see the avg temp of 37 degrees in January and my wife and I both think "NO WAY TOO COLD!' I want to ride my motorcycle year round or at least 10 of those months.
I am thinking of buying now or in the near future depending on a deal and the market A new or newer home with all the hurricane upgrades. Some think we have at least another year or 2 for rock bottom but, who knows.
I can retire in 3 1/2 years and will probaly only work 2-3 days a week when I do just to keep busy, ditto for the wife. I am divorced and my son is 8 right now ( yup, getting complicated) even when I do retire I may have to keep a rental up north unless I can convince the EX to let me have my son or have her move too! yeah, my wife loves that one!..lol..
SO, here is what we would like and by all means please let me know if I am partially or completely outta my mind!
Not too close to the water,although we would LOVE an ocean view BUT, being from up here we are a bit scared off by hurricanes! ( yup, why go to Fl but, we have the weather factor,lol) So we are thinking if we were 20-30 minutes inland we may have less risk and I hear that the closer to the ocean the higher the insurance?
We love the tropical look of palm trees, my wife likes to go out dancing on occassion, DJ, current dance music,, that sort of thing. My wife has 2 children one 19 the other 22.The 19 lives with us but is going off to college next year, the son does NOT live w/us.
From what I have read on here so far city sewer and water seems to be the way to go.
No trailer parks in the area, Schools may or may not be an issue since I really dont think the ex is letting my son come w/me. In 10 years my son will be 18 and even though we may move permanently sooner 10 years we be the absolute longest time frame.
we would prefer not to look into someone's back yard either if it too close, like i said some sort of a view would be nice and if the homes were close if we were looking at another inground pool that would not be necessarily a bad thing. Just no eye sores. Not sure how the different neighborhoods are really?
We went to Sarasota for a week last year and stayed in Seista Key, tons of stores and Sarasota seemed to have clubs and more activity. However, we have no idea about other areas. We are definitely not into crime areas that's for sure, so a big city would probably not be our thing. We LOVED Armand circle but, that might get old fast? I can imagine how expensive that is! Plus probably too close for hurricane issues. Any opinions/ideas would be welcomed
PHEW, now that i have even confused myself any ideas? lol.... Thanks, JIm

[LemominRI]

moving to port charlotte any info would be great health care jobs,schools,economy,crime,people thanks

[SoFLGal]

Wow! Can't believe this thread is still going.

OK LemominRI, you're moving to PC. There are lots of jobs in and around Port Charlotte in the health care field so that shouldn't be a problem.

Schools-I prefer Sarasota County Schools to Charlotte County schools. I moved because of this reason. I really depends on what school district you are in.

The economy is like it is all over the country- kind of crappy. Forget it if you are in the construction field. They are struggling and most have moved out of the area.

Crime-I would stay away from the areas directly around the hospitals-it is a high rental area.

The people are nice, very friendly. I was born and raised in southwest Florida and would not live anywhere else

[TouchOfWhimsy]

North Port will be full of snowbirds half of the year (November to April), but if you can deal with that, it might be good for you. I happen to LOVE the Englewood/Lee County Island beaches... more so than the Miami beaches. I love the warm water and the soft sand. I have not found the water to be murky... in the harbors, yes, but not in the Gulf. *shrug* Not much nightlife to speak of that I know about, but being a wife and mom, maybe there is a bunch I don't know! You won't be very close to the beach... I like Englewood and I really think it's a cute town. A lot of the houses seem small, but I love smallish houses (less to clean!), so I could be biased.

Good luck with your move, whatever you decide!

[chele1256]

Don't move to North Port from NJ. I grew up in NJ and North Port is a great disappointment. We moved down here last year to Port Charlotte and NP is riddled with crime, construction and congestion. The pictures on line look very nice and the prices are cheap but that's only because it sucks so bad.

[FringedNFab]

I am the OP of this thread and still plan on moving down to the general area by this fall with some of my family members (then after, hopefully others will follow us!) and I think people have to go down and try these areas out for themselves. It seems that for every area of Florida, you have as many lovers as you do haters so take it all with a grain of salt. People create and find their own paradise. I like everyone else use this forum for general information good and bad, and it's been a great help. Where is LewLew? lol did you move down to NP yet? I haven't heard from you since so fill me in on the happenings I should be down by late September early October so I hope to get settled in. Still wrapping things up, up here in crappy Ohio! As they say, it's wise to have a plan in place before a big move like this. Hope to still see some of you once I make it down ttyl

[SoFLGal]

I just spoke with LewLew last night. She thought her husband was going to get a job in Venice but it turns out they offered him a job in Ft Myers. She was going to buy in North Port but thought that the drive for her husband would be way too much.

She just put in offer in on a home in Ft Myers a week or so ago and should be closing next week. I'll keep you posted. She was pretty bummed about not being able to move to North Port since I sold her in-laws a home here. LewLew has been pretty busy packing and so forth and hasn't had much time to post. I'll tell her your looking for her